Trekking to ‘Valley of Flower’

It was just dawning in Dehradun. We started our journey from Dehradun to Josimath by 6.00 AM.I could see the overnight travellers waiting for their next bus with road side tea and biscuits in their hand , the loaders in market were busy in their activities, early morning walkers some with their dogs , etc. Though I had spent 8 months here I could not see early morning Dehradun as I was mostly busy in academy. Our journey followed the below route.

Our travel had a first stop over in Kodiala for a quick breakfast. Kodiala, at this time of year, was amazing with the Ganges emerging between Kodiala ghats

Further in our travel I could observe the fragmented tributaries that confluence at many places to finally form the mighty Ganga . The Panch prayags were Vishnu, Nand, Karna, Rudra and Deva prayag.

After 13 hours of journey through a serpentine hill route travelling nearly at 20 Km/Hr speed in a GMVN bus, which had suspension problems and a tyre puncture near Srinagar, we were asked to directly report to DFO office for a small presentation.

The presentation by DFO sir was concerned about preparing us the next 4 days of trekking. He explained the discovery and emergence of valley of flowers.

●In 1931, Frank S. Smythe, Eric Shipton and R.L. Holdsworth, all British mountaineers, lost their way while returning from a successful expedition to Mt.Kamet and happened upon the valley, which was full of flowers. They were attracted to the beauty of the area and named it the “Valley of Flowers.”

●The valley was declared a national park in 1982 and now it is a World Heritage Site

●The spiritual importance of this place

●The illegal trade of a forest produce cordyceps sinensis

2.Day 2 – trekking to Ghangria village base camp

The next day we started out trekking to Ghangria base camp. We travelled by GMVN bus to Govind Ghat , from where our trekking started. The trekking to Ghangria had many modes of transport as i observed. Many people followed the trekking route by walk and the other mode is by mules, carried by human.

Despite the use of mules , the trekking path was maintained clean and Green which shows the work of eco development committee of the region.It took around 5 Hrs for me t reach Ghangria from Govind Ghat.

3.Day 3 & 4 – Valley of flowers and Hmkund Sahib

Third day started with valley of lowers from Ghangria base camp. The trekking followed a route of 5 km approximately through pristine forest crisscrossing the Pushpavati valley.We had too take the long route of 5 Km as the short route was obstructed by a landslide. The entire region was prone to land slide as i could observe.

The majestic Himalayas formed a vertical cliff over looking pushpavati valley .It also showed the power of flowing water to melt any thing in its way. The v shaped valleys, Gorges, wethered rocks everywhere surrounded by sub alpine forests with predominant Betula trees was a pleasant sight.

The beautiful trek finally lead me to valley of flowers. The valley was covers with flowers of various colours surrounded by 3 peaks in three sides and a torrent river running in between. I found many flowering plants such as like Anemone, Wild Rose, Balsam, Cobra Lily etc., and several trees like Betula.

4.Day 5 & 6 – Tekking back and return to Dehradun

We followed the same route to trek back to Govindghat and we had overnight stay in Joshimath.The next day we travelled back to dehradun.